


Mass Effect: The Next Generation

by Nudeviking



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-09 15:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10415304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nudeviking/pseuds/Nudeviking
Summary: So I'm a liar. I said I'd never talk about, write about, think about, or play this series ever again and yet I bought Mass Effect: Andromeda the day it came out. These are the continuing adventures of me playing through Mass Effect. This is a new game, so there will probably be spoilers and stuff. Read at your own risk.





	1. S04E01 - Everything Goes Wrong (Habitat Seven)

**Cold Open**

Sloane Shepard sat on the edge of her bed half watching the news vid showing shuttle upon shuttle making their way to one of the massive arks in orbit above Earth. The reporter was saying something about Andromeda but she couldn't focus on it. She had more pressing matters to attend to; namely the Collectors and the lousy Cerberus fucks she was working with for some goddamn reason.

She wished she was on one of those shuttles, about to travel farther than any person had ever gone before. Far from Collectors and Cerberus and responsibility, but then her thoughts went to Liara. The trip to Andromeda was one way only and if Sloane were to get on one of those shuttles she'd never she Liara again. It was a sacrifice she wasn't sure she was willing to make.

Her intercom suddenly squawked to life. It was Miranda Larson. "Shepard, the Illusive Smoking Man wants to speak with you."

Sloane sighed. She hated the scumfuck. "Alright, I'll be right down." She stood and made her way to the lift. Running away from it all was a nice dream, but that wasn't who she was. She wasn't a space explorer destined to roam the stars seeking out new planets and new sexy aliens to hump. She was space hero destined to save the galaxy from the forces of evil.

The doors to the lift closed with a serpentine hiss.

**Opening Credits**

**640 years later...**

The ark came out of mass effect and slowly drifted through the inky blackness of unexplored space. Gradually the ship's lights began to come on as systems that had laid dormant for some six centuries whirred back to life. They had arrived in Andromeda.

Deep within the bowels of the massive ark the pods containing the most essential of the cyrogenetically frozen colonists were lowered from their shelves by a robot arm to begin the thawing process.

Clarissa Ryder awoke with a start from her six century long, dreamless sleep. She felt like death, slightly warmed over. A light was shined in her eyes and a woman's voice spoke to her. Clarissa was only slightly aware of what was going on around her. As her eyes adjusted to the light she saw a woman standing before her.

"Can I get some coffee?" Clarissa asked hopefully as she ran a hand through her red locks.

"After the doc checks you out," the woman replied, "The brass wants the Pathfinder team defrosted and mission ready posthaste, and that means you and your brother Miss Ryder."

She sighed, "Six hundred years and I can't even get a cup of coffee. I should have stayed on Earth."

The woman chuckled halfheartedly and said, "Follow me Miss Ryder. The medical bay's right through here."

Clarissa followed the woman past the banks of stasis pods the lined the walls of the room. Her brother, Zack, was in one of them, unless he'd already been thawed out.

Clarissa began to asked, "Has my brother..." but before she could finish her thought the woman replied, "No, not yet. Within the hour I'd guess. Well here we are. The doctor will take it from here."

The Asari doctor standing before her told her to sit on a bed. Clarissa did as she was bade and the doctor had her follow a light with her eyes.

"The neural implants seem to have bonded well," the doctor said after a moment, "There don't seem to be any complications."

"Huh? The what?" Clarissa asked.

"Neural implants. You have an AI implant. His name is Sam. All the Pathfinder team do. It'll help you stay in contact with the others and get data as you need it," the doctor replied.

Weren't AIs illegal? Clarissa had heard about that one rogue AI running a scam out of one of the casinos on the Citadel a couple years before she'd left the Milky Way and all the pundits prattled on for days about how there needed to be stricter laws governing the development of VI so that no one would accidentally develop a true AI.

As Clarissa pondered the legal implications of what had been done to her a pair of techs wheeled a stasis pod into the medical bay. "We got Ryder here," one said, "The brother..."

The Asari doctor waved her hand vaguely toward a corner of the room and said, "Put him over there and initiate procedure to bring him out of stasis."

The techs nodded and pushed her brother's pod to the designated and began typing code into their Power Gloves to initiate the procedure.

"Are you experiencing any discomfort?" the doctor asked her as she turned her attention back to Clarissa.

"No, not really. I mean it's just kind of weird that six hundred years have passed," she replied, "Maybe that's nothing to you but for us it's kind of a mindfuck...uh...not the Asari kind...you know just like, 'WOAH! Everyone I know is dead.'"

The room suddenly shuddered violently and the lights flickered. Clarissa watched the doctor's medical tools start to float up off their tray and a moment later she too began to rise from the bed. Soon everything in the room that had not been bolted or strapped down was hovering midair. Whatever had caused the room to shake so violently had knocked the grav-systems offline.

The doors to the medical bay hissed open and a stern looking woman pulled herself into the room. Clarissa had met her once, back in the Milky Way before they got put in stasis. Carla or Courtney or something. She was part of the Pathfinder too. Second in command if Clarissa remembered correctly.

"There's a problem with the grav-system," Cara or whatever the woman with the stylish undercut's name was said, "I'm going to have to do a hard reset. Brace yourselves."

Clarissa tried to pivot so she'd fall on her ass rather than her face when the gravity was turned back on. She didn't quite make it. The gravity came on and Clarissa crashed to the floor on her hip. She looked up to see her brother's stasis pod tumbling towards her and the doctor. They'd surely be crushed.

A biotic field suddenly appeared around them and the pod stopped. The doctor stood and looked at Clarissa. "Are you hurt?" she asked.

"No, I'm fine," Clarissa replied, "My brother. Is he..." The pod was battered and dented but seemingly hadn't broken apart.

One of the techs looked at his Power Glove and said, "The neural implant didn't set properly, but his vital signs are good. Heart and respiratory are normal. We'll be able to get him out of stasis it's just going to take a bit longer."

Corey or Cate or whatever the lady with the remarkable haircut's Goddamn was sauntered over and was like, "Ryder, your dad wants to see all the Pathfinder team so let's double time it to the bridge."

Clarissa nodded and dumbly muttered, "Uh...okay."

She followed after Carrie something or other toward the tram. The had gotten as far as the engine room when the ship again shook. Warning klaxons screamed furiously.

"Fuck! It's a power coupling!" someone screamed.

"Ryder, you got a Power Glove right?" Connie shouted, "Don't stand there like an Asari streetwalker waiting for a John! Use that sumbitch to find the faulty coupling."

Clarissa was slightly less enthralled by Corin than she had been moments earlier and muttered, "Sure thing Mom..." under her breath as she scanned power couplings.

A moment later disaster was averted when Clarissa discovered the bum power coupling and replaced it before the entire goddamn spaceship exploded in a spectacular fireball of broken bodies and twisted metal.

"Good work Ryder," Colleen said, "You saved us all from certain death with you hasty scanning but I don't know how long that thing's going to hold. We should get to the bridge with a quickness."

Clarissa Ryder shrugged and followed the woman whose name started with C...or was it K? Who knew?

**Commercial Break**

The bridge was a goddamn mess of scurrying ensigns and technicians trying to get klaxons and sirens to shut up. Commander Lee was there and beside her stood her father, Alec Ryder...space hero deluxe and Lead Pathfinder. Clarissa pouted.

"Where's your brother Clarissa?" Dad Ryder asked with a stern scowl.

"Still on ice," Clarissa said rolling her eyes so hard it made her dizzy.

"There was some trouble with his pod because of the temporary loss of gravity," Karen(?) said slightly more diplomatically, "He's fine, he's just going to have to come to naturally which could take some time."

"Looks like we're going to be a man down when we go down there," Dad Ryder said with a scowl, "I guess I'll just have to make do with you Claire."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Dad," Clarissa replied sarcastically.

"Pathfinder, I still don't think it's a good idea to go down there until we fix the ship," Commander Lee said, "The longer we stay in this Dark Energy shitstorm the less likely it is that we'll be able to get out of it."

"Dark energy?" Clarissa exclaimed, "I thought that only existed in deep space!"

"So did we all," Commander Lee said before bringing up an image of a massive shitstorm of dark energy on the screen, "but this isn't home."

"It could be!" Dad Ryder exclaimed, "Down there is Habitat Seven! One of the golden planets selected before we set off six hundred years ago."

He brought an image of the planet up on the monitor that showed a lush green and blue globe. Beside it was the way the planet looked at present. It was not a good look.

"Dad, it looks like shit," Clarissa said, "I'm with Commander Lee, we should just get the shit out of here and try to get to Citadel Jr. and rendezvous with the other arks."

"It doesn't matter what you think Claire," Dad Ryder said, "I'm Pathfinder Leader and what I say goes so gear up and be ready for a drop in thirty!"

He stormed out of the bridge with Kelly or Candy or whatever the shit that lady's name was hot on his heels. As the door hissed a sexy hiss and closed behind him, Commander Lee turned to Clarissa and was like, "Yo no disrespect to you but your dad's kind of a douchelord."

Clarissa nodded in agreement and replied, "Yeah, people skills were not really Dad's strong suit."

* * *

"I heard you went against Pathfinder Ryder," some hillbilly dirt farmer cum Pathfinder team guy spat venomously, "Dude's an N7...who are you to question him?"

"Um...his daughter. Besides you didn't see the planet. Shit's totally fucked down there," Clarissa replied.

"Whatever. Dude's a goddamn legend. I'd follow him anywhere," said the hillperson as he headed to the shuttle.

Clarissa shrugged and headed towards the other shuttle. She didn't know any of the other occupants. She stood over by the window of the shuttle as it rose and glided out of the docking bay in the void. Dark energy swirled and crackled all about the shuttle.

"Ryder yeah? The name's Liam. I think we might have met back home," the squad member closest to her said. He glanced out the window and added, "Crazy out there innit?"

"Yeah..." Clarissa said, "Heck of a welcome home."

The shuttles weaved through the pulsating maelstrom of dark energy and began their descent down toward Habitat Seven. As they entered the planet's atmosphere it became even more obvious that something had down drastically wrong in the six hundred years that had passed since the had left Earth.

The sky was hazy and violently discharging bolts of electricity at fairly regular intervals.

"Shuttle 1 we're having some trouble here with our nav-systems," the pilot said into the intercom.

The response was staticky and cut out due to interference but Clarissa could make out her father's voice, "Stay on course."

Bolts of lightning cleaved dangerously close to the shuttle. "Shuttle 1 my controls are locking up!" the pilot shouted into the intercom.

Another bolt of lighting flashed and this time the side of the shuttle was ripped open. Liam was sucked out in an instant but some how managed to grab hold of the edge. Clarissa dropped down and reached out to him as howling wind rushed past them.

"Liam, grab my hand!" she shouted.

Liam looked up at her and a moment later he was gone; sucked out of the shuttle into the stormy sky. Clarissa cursed aloud. Another bolt of lightning streaked past the shuttle causing it to tilt to one side. Clarissa tumbled as the shuttle rocked and a moment later she too was sucked from the shuttle.

The AI, Sam, spoke, "Clarissa, your jump pack seems to be malfunctioning. You are rapidly approaching terminal velocity."

All about her giant rock formations float by as she rushed ever closer to the ground below. Six hundred years and countless light years traveled only to end up a smear on some nameless rock. God did being a space pilgrim suck.

**Commercial Break**

Clarissa gasped for air. Somehow she'd managed to get her jump pack operational at the last second and change a deadly landing into one that was merely painful. Now she faced another problem: the air of this planet was poisonous and her helmet was cracked. She fired up her Power Glove without thinking and held it up to the faceplate of her helmet. A beam of beam emanated from the glove causing the cracks in her helmet to knit back together. It looked like shit but at least she wouldn't suffocate. She stood slowly and tried to raise someone on her intercom but got nothing but static.

If the shuttles had landed safely the lightning had either fried the comlinks or was interfering with them. The reality though was that the ship had probably crashed and killed everyone aboard. The reality that she would die alone here, probably of starvation, hit her hard.

"Ryder? Ryder is that you?"

Clarissa turned to see Liam bounding towards her, looking no worse for wear.

"Liam? I thought you were done for!" Clarissa exclaimed.

"Nah mate it's gonna take more than that to do me in," Liam said, "I was a cop back in London yeah? Crisis response division..."

"How'd you end up here?"

"It's a long story yeah? I'll tell you about it over a pint when we get off this rock alright?"

"Okay," said Clarissa, "We should probably try to get to higher ground to see if we can spot any debris from the crash."

"That's a smart bit of business," Liam replied, "Let's head for that mountain yeah?"

The duo headed up the mountain avoiding lightning strikes and floating rock bullshit. At the top the saw some big ass creatures flying around. Clarissa made a joke about dragons and quickly wondered why she had. Liam probably thought she was a moron since he ignored her Dragon quip and instead pointed out some wreckage a short ways up ahead.

Clarissa and Liam made their way toward the wreckage and as they approached they heard someone speaking space English, "I'm unarmed! My ship has crashed...I need help!"

It was the pilot of the shuttle she'd been a passenger on and surrounding him were a trio of crummy looking aliens wielding laser guns. They weren't backing down.

"Remember the rules for first encounter," Liam said, "Don't fire unless fired upon first."

"Alright..." replied Clarissa as biotic energy surrounded her and she rushed forward into the nearest crummy alien. Her fist crushed through the alien's face causing it to explode in a veritable eruption of gore. The crummy alien died.

A laser streak lasered out of one of the other crummy aliens' guns completely ruining the pilot's shit. Clarissa charged forward and punch fought the fuck out of the other crummy alien. Soon they were all dead.

"So much for the rules of first contact yeah?" said Liam.

Clarissa shrugged and said, "What? I didn't fire a single shot."

"True. We should check out that wreckage...maybe we can get the coms up and running," said Liam.

The ship turned up little that would be of any help and so Clarissa and Liam set of to follow the trail of debris from the crashed shuttle hoping that they would find something with which they could contact the other shuttle or even the ark.

Again they came up with little of use beyond some extra ammo. They did however see a flare go up in the distance while scavenging the wreckage.

"That's probably the other shuttle," Clarissa said, "We should go check it out."

And so the did precisely that. They headed in the general direction of the flare avoiding lightning bolts and discovering that the crummy aliens they'd punched to death were some kind of super aggro archeologists and not the people responsible for the ancient ruins that dotted the inhabitable landscape. It was a very enlightening hike to say the least.

The came at last to a hillock atop which the second shuttle had landed. It looked a bit battered but was more or less in one piece. Cordelia was there with some other Pathfinder team peoples but Dad Ryder was nowhere to be seen.

"Yo Kelly, what's going on here? Does that shuttle still work? Ours is in like 84 pieces right now. Liam and I totally fell out of it before it crashed though. Also where's my dad?" Clarissa asked.

"Yeah our shuttle's more or less in working order. We've just about got the comlinks back up and once we do we'll be ready to go," the woman said, "As for Pathfinder Ryder, he went to scout ahead...and my name's Cora, not Kelly."

"Cora!" Clarissa exclaimed, "That's what it was! It's been bugging me since I saw you in the medical bay."

A voice suddenly shouted "Aw ye ye!" It was Sam the AI. He was back online and very excited about it. Communications were back in business!

"Hey team it's Dad Ryder here," Dad Ryder's voice bellowed like a rock n' roll saxophone over the com system, "I'm scouting something up ahead. Cora, bring a couple dudes up to the coordinates I'm sending."

"Yes sir!" replied Cora, "I'll bring Liam and Clarissa."

"She didn't die when she fell out of a shuttle?" asked Dad Ryder nonchalantly.

"No, I'm still alive Dad..." Clarissa replied with a roll of her eyes.

"Alright, just get up here okay?" said Dad Ryder before ending the transmission.

Cora looked at the others and gave some orders, "Clarissa, Liam with me. You two nameless grunts prep the shuttle okay."

The nameless grunts were like, "Yes ma'am," but before anyone could get down to business a shuttle rumbled overhead. It was those goddamn crummy aliens again. A mess of them dropped down and opened fire.

FIGHT IT OUT!

Clarissa and company fought it out with guns and space magic and charging forward and punching the shot out of crummy aliens with Power Gloves. Liam maybe had grenades or something. Sticks of dynamite maybe. It wasn't important. What was important was the space heroes emerged victorious, but it wasn't a flawless victory. One of the grunts had been shot.

The other grunt was all like, "I think I can stabilize her but we gotta get off this rock with a quickness. Go see whatever Dad Ryder's on about and get back."

Clarissa nodded and followed after Cora and Liam who'd already started toward Dad Ryder's location. She caught up with them atop a ridge overlooking some big ass tower thing with lightning and dark energy shit whirling above it. Dad Ryder was chilling on the ridge.

"Get down you chucklefucks," he said, "You wanna get your asses shot?"

Clarissa got down and looked at the tower. It was crawling with crummy aliens. She crouched down and said, "So Pathfinder Dad, we got a situation. There are crummy aliens all over the place and our dudes are hurt and one of our shuttles exploded. Liam and I fell out of one...we're fine by the way thanks for asking. This entire golden planet is a joke so let's just get back to the ship and carry on to Citadel Jr."

"We'll never make it off planet. Not with these storms," Dad Ryder said, "We'll have to do something about the lightning first."

"Dad...it's weather. I know that you think you're god sometimes but you're not actually god. There's nothing you can do to change the weather," Clarissa said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Dad Ryder rolled his eyes and said, "You really aren't as bright as your brother are you? Look at the tower you dolt. The lightning and dark energy shit is coming out of it. We get in there we can shut it off and get off this planet."

"There's still like a bagrillion crummy aliens down there and only like four of us," Clarissa replied.

"We even the odds!" Dad Ryder said as he pushed a button. An explosion ripped through the tower, followed by another and another. Even Clarissa had to admit it was pretty badass. "Now c'mon! Try to keep up!"

He leaped down from the ridge, his assault rifle blazing. Crummy aliens were dying left and right. Clarissa tried to keep up, but even with bionic charges it was difficult. Her dad was like a machine. He was doing it all: decoding locks, putting fools on blast, scanning alien tech...all without breaking a sweat. It wasn't long before they reached the top of the tower.

"Alright you scumfucks I'm going to need a minute to translate this language so I can shut this fucking lightning machine off alright?" Dad Ryder said, "Those crumbums are regrouping. Don't let them kill me as I'm translating this shit okay?"

"You heard Pathfinder Dad," Cora shouted, take up defensive positions!"

Clarissa readied her shotgun and crouched behind a space crate. Suddenly a door opened and a crummy alien came jostling out, running straight toward her. Clarissa took aim and pulled the trigger, "BOOYAH! BOOYAH!" The shell from her shotgun grazed the crummy alien's shoulder, barely injuring it. It was still running all up on her.

"F this," Clarissa said as she leaped out from behind the space crate and slammed her fist into the crummy alien's stupid face. Tremendous blow! Bones cracked and the crummy alien fell down dead, but more quickly came to take its place. This Clarissa also dispatched with fisticuffs.

"I'm done over here!" Dad Ryder shouted, "Girl Zack, come help me with this goddamn door."

Clarissa sighed and walked over to the blast door her dad was trying to open. She knelt down and took hold of it and pulled upwards.

"C'mon! Put some muscle into it!" Dad Ryder said, "You lift blast doors like a girl!"

Clarissa hulked out and the door slammed open. Her dad strode into the lightning control room like a Titan and muttered, "I probably would have gotten it open faster if I did it myself."

Clarissa sighed and watched her father approached the control panel. He did some weird hand motions in front of it and a moment later was like, "That'll do her. C'mon look."

Dad Ryder walked out of the control room to the tower. Clarissa followed after him. The sky was now a lovely shade of blue and completely devoid of lightning. Whatever her old man had done had worked.

"BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!" a monstrous farting noise ripped out of the control room. Clarissa turned to see a massive pink cloud rolling toward her and her father, but before she could do anything it slammed into her like a jackhammer. She was thrown from the top of the tower to the rocky ground below.

The air smelled strange and Clarissa couldn't breathe. "Oh no...not again!" Clarissa thought to herself as she touched her faceplate. It was completely shattered.

Her father crawled over to her. He was calling for the shuttle to pick them up and shouting something, but Clarissa couldn't hear anything beside a high pitched buzz. Her father removed her ruined helmet and tossed it aside and then took of his own helmet and placed it on her.

"Breathe slowly," Dad Ryder said. Clarissa tried to do as she'd been told but it was still hard to breathe and everything became dimmer and dimmer as she looked upon her father's face. Clarissa Ryder was dying.


	2. S04E02 - Everything Goes Wrong (Citadel Jr.)

Clarissa Ryder sat bolt upright and gasped for air. Her head felt as if were about to burst and sweat dripped from her brow. She looked around and discovered she was back on the ship, though it was a part of the vessel she'd never been in before. She had no recollection of how she got back. Liam and Cora were standing beside her as was the Asari doctor from earlier. All three looked grave.

"What happened? How'd I get back here?" Clarissa asked.

"What happened was you were dead for awhile there mate," Liam said, "as for how you got here, Cora and I carried you. Well mostly Cora...you're deceptively heavy for such a tiny thing yeah?"

"I'm not that heavy," Clarissa replied, "It's all that body armor, but what's this about me being dead? That's impossible isn't it?"

The Asari doctor nodded, "I'm afraid it isn't impossible. You were totally dead...for twenty-two seconds to be precise. If not for your father, you probably wouldn't be here at all."

Clarissa recalled her father removing his helmet for her back on Habitat Seven. "Is Dad okay? Where is he?"

The trio looked at one another nervously before Cora said, "Your father's dead. It was you or him and he chose you. I'm sorry."

Clarissa felt sick. "We weren't close, I mean Dad wasn't close with anyone really but it's still kind of fucked. So now what? Cora are you in charge or is Commander Lee now the big boss?"

Cora glowered, "You are."

"Me? What are you talking about? I'm just here because I kind of know how to use a gun and took a few semesters of space archeology in college," Clarissa replied, "I don't know the first thing about pathfinding or leading people."

"Well, you're going to have to learn," Cora replied, "Before he died he transferred Pathfinder status to you and there's no real way to undo it."

"Look, I don't want the job," Clarissa said, "I'll transfer whatever authority thing my dad transferred to me to you if you want Cora."

The doctor shook her head and said, "It's not that easy. Your father transferred a number of S.A.M. augmentations to your neural transponder that give you authority as Pathfinder. There's no way to undo what's been done without killing you."

Her father was dead and he was still trying to control her life. It was almost enough to make Clarissa laugh.

"So where are we heading Pathfinder?" Cora asked.

Clarissa ran a hand through her disheveled red hair and thought a moment before replying, "Habitat Seven was a bust. Have Commander Lee set course for Citadel Jr."

**Commercial Break**

The massive Citadel Jr. station loomed in the distance. From where she stood on the command deck of the Hyperion, Clarissa could make out a few flickering lights on Citadel Jr., but it otherwise seemed deserted and vast portions of the exterior remained unfinished.

"Is it supposed to look like that?" Liam asked as the ark slowly approached, "Seems a bit shit yeah?"

Clarissa nodded in agreement but said nothing. One more thing that had gone wrong in Andromeda.

Commander Lee looked up from her command console and said, "I'm hailing Citadel Jr. but I'm not getting not any responds from the station. The docks seem to be cleared for landing though. I'm going to take the Hyperion in."

Clarissa looked to Liam and Cora and said, "Get your shoes on, we're going down to Citadel Jr. to see what the deal is."

Cora scowled and was like, "We already have shoes on. Everyone is wearing shoes except you. I know you grew up on Earth, but that's really no excuse."

"Who's the Pathfinder?" Clarissa asked with a smirk.

"You are," replied Core begrudgingly.

"Right, so gear up, we're going down to Citadel Jr. to poke around," replied Clarissa.

* * *

"Where is the welcome party?" Liam asked with disappointment, as they made their way onto Citadel Jr., "Where are the bottles of Santana DVX?"

The interior of Citadel Jr. was just as dark and deserted looking as the interior had been. Wall panels were open exposing wiring and the entire Hall of Immigration was lit by just the auxiliary emergency lighting.

This entire trip was turning into an unmitigated disaster. The trio of thawed out space travelers located and information kiosk that provided little assistance in discovering what had transpired.

Clarissa scouted about the docks and, after what felt like an eternity, finally found another person: a day laborer wearing a jumpsuit and an Evel Knievel helmet.

"Man am I glad to see you. I've got an ark filled to the rafters with human popsicles and was worried this place had been abandoned or something," Clarissa said.

The day laborer stared at her. Was he a mute? Clarissa repeated herself, "I have an ark with like a bajillion people parked outside. Where do I need to send them?"

"Uh...uh...uh...you really came on an ark?" the behelmeted worked finally said, "I thought it was just another malfunction when the docking lights came on. We get a lot of malfunctions out here..."

"So, about the bajillion dudes back on my ark?" Clarissa said again.

"Huh huh huh...that's a bit above my pay grade. Hold on," the worker laughed. He got his com out and summoned someone, "Yeah, they say they're from one of the arks. Humans. Yeah, sorry. Alright."

The worker looked back up to Clarissa and said, "Someone will be along in a minute who can answer your questions. Just sit tight a minute."

A moment later a Terrarium clad in body armor entered the Hall of Immigration and walked over to Clarissa and her companions and introduced himself, "My apologies for the disarray here. My name's Kandros. I'm the head of the militia here on Citadel Jr."

"Ryder. Uh...Pathfinder for the Hyperion," Clarissa replied. It sounded weird to her.

"I thought Pathfinder Ryder was a man," Kandros said.

"He was my father. He died when we made landfall on Habitat Seven," Clarissa replied, "Before he died I was made Pathfinder."

"It sounds like you've had a rough go of it too," Kandros said, "Maybe things will start looking up for us all now. I mean after a year of waiting we figured no one was coming and yet here you are."

"You've been out here for a year?" Clarissa asked in disbelief.

The Terrarium clacked his reply, "More than a year. It's been hard since we got out here."

"What happened?" asked Clarissa.

"Long story short: everything that could go wrong went wrong. Short story long: we encountered a cloud of dark energy when we entered the system the smashed up Citadel Jr. and killed a bunch of people, including most of our leadership, a bunch of people revolted afterwards. We were able to put the rebellion down and the agitators were exiled. None of the arks have arrived so supplies are dwindling. It's all a goddamn mess, but I'll let the other leaders fill you in on the specifics."

The Terrarium lead Clarissa and her cohorts through half finished corridors where dim lights flickered and wires hung from the ceiling. The Andromeda Initiative, the organization that had sent them all there, did not seem to have their shit together in the slightest. A short while later they arrived in the Citadel Jr. command center.

The Command Center, though as dimly lit as the rest of the station, was alive with activity. Technicians worked on sparking terminals and middle managers middle managed. Kandros turned a pointed out a stern looking woman up on a platform and clicked, "That's Addison. She's in charge of colonial affairs. You'll want to talk to her. And that Salarian guy is Tann."

"Seems more off-white than tan to me," Clarissa said with a rakish grin.

The Terrarium chuckled and said, "That's a good one. Tann's been the acting Initiative director since Director Jan and her people got their shit wrecked by the Scourge."

"The Scourge?"

"Oh, those weird clouds of dark energy...we call it the Scourge. Sounds more badass that way. You know, 'Our ship blew up because of a cloud,' seems a lot lamer than, 'The Scourge wrecked house on us," Kandros said, "Anyway Tann was an accountant but now he's running the whole show. He's kind of a dick though so just be careful with him. You'll probably want to talk to Kesh too. She's the Krogan over there. Heads up engineering. Anyway I've got to get back to the office we've got a saboteur apparently and I'm understaffed so I'm the one that's gotta look through the security vids. It's good to have you aboard Pathfinder."

Kandros then saluted and the turned and head off down one of the darkened halls. Clarissa turned to her comrades and with a sigh said, "Let's get this over with."

She walked over to the trio of middle managers now running the show and introduced herself, "Hey I'm Clarissa Ryder, the uh...Pathfinder for the Hyperion."

The human woman, Addison, scoffed, "Pathfinder my ass...where's Alec?"

"Dad died and made me Pathfinder..."

"I'm sorry Alec's dead but Pathfinder's not a hereditary title!" Addison shouted, "There are chains of command to follow and training that needs to be done. Tell me, what training could you possibly have to qualify you for this job?"

"Dad taught me how to shoot and I took some archaeology classes in college back on Earth. I worked security at a couple Ancient Alien dig sites," Clarissa replied, "Oh...and I'm a biotic."

"That's barely enough to qualify you to be a field agent," Addison said, "but what's done is done I suppose."

Director Tann nodded and said, "We should at least give Ryder a chance to prove herself. Her arrival alone has given all of us here hope."

"Look, I didn't ask to be Pathfinder," Clarissa said, "but I'll do the best I can. I'm dedicated and have good people working for me and motivation. If I don't succeed we all fail and if we fail we die."

The Krogan nodded and said, "She's got my vote."

Director Tann agreed as well and the asked, "Well Addison?"

The woman scowled and said, "Fine, but Clarissa, I'm not calling you Pathfinder until you Pathfind."

Tann clapped his hands and said, "Excellent! It's settled then. We will provide you with a ship and you will carry out the tasks of the Pathfinder. I'd recommend starting on Eos. We made efforts there earlier but the settlements failed. Perhaps you will find success where we did not. Kesh, have the ship loaded for departure."

The lady Krogan acknowledge the order and headed off. Of the three middle managers Clarissa liked her best. Cora and Liam left with her to oversee the load-in at the ship and Tann departed a moment later to his offices leaving Clarissa alone with Addison.

"You really don't like me do you?" Clarissa asked as the woman scowled at her.

"I don't care about you," Addison responded, "but you're not Alec..."

"Were you and my dad..."

"I'm not your new mom," Addison spat out with disdain before Clarissa could even finish asking her question.

Clarissa was taken aback by Addison's interjection and said, "Wow, that really wasn't what I was going to ask at all. I was just going to ask if you two fucked."

"A couple times...back in the Milky Way. We were friends with benefits more than anything."

Clarissa instantly regretted asking anything and thus spake, "I'm going to go off into unexplored, uninhabited space now. Bye bye."

**Commercial Break**

"Wow. That's a good looking spaceship," Clarissa said to herself with a whistle as she looked at the shuttle, named Tempest, docked before her. She still couldn't believe it was hers to command. Back in the Milky Way she'd been on a number Alliance frigates and Asari science vessels while working security for archaeologists but none of those ships compared to the elegance of the Tempest. She only hoped it functioned as well as it looked.

Well-knuckled dock workers were hauling space crates up walkway into the ship. Behind them a Terrarium lady clicked commands. The workers disappeared into the ship and the Terrarium turned and walked over to Clarissa.

"So you're Ryder huh?" she asked nonchalantly.

"Yes, and you are?"

"My name Vetra. I'm in acquisitions, gunning, food and beverage allocation, and about a half dozen other things I probably shouldn't talk about out in the open," the Terrarium said.

"Sounds like you wear a lot of hats," Clarissa said.

"No, no hats just this visor," Vetra replied.

"Uh...it's just a figure of speech," Clarissa replied.

Vetra laughed and said, "I know, I'm just fucking with you. Anyway, the Tempest's almost loaded. She'll be ready to depart in the hour."

"Thank you Vetra," Clarissa said.

"One last thing, I just wanted you to know that I'll be coming with you," the Terrarium said.

"Uh...what?" Clarissa asked raising an eyebrow in confusion.

The Terrarium repeated herself, "I'm coming with you. I know the ship better than you do, plus once you get off Citadel Jr. supplies are hard to come by, but I've got...well, let's just call them connections and leave it at that."

"It's not going to be easy out there," Clarissa said, "Down on Habitat Seven we ran into some hostile aliens."

"Ugly fuckers with bones all over the goddamn place right? The Kett. We know all about them," Vetra replied.

"So you know how willing they are to fight it out. Can you handle yourself in a gun battle?"

Vetra raised her palms upwards and shrugged with a smirk. "I am Terrarium you know, what do you think? Of course I can handle myself in a gun battle."

"Alright then. Welcome aboard Vetra." Clarissa shook hands with the praying mantis bird thing standing before her.

Vetra headed up the walkway onto the Tempest. She got about halfway up before a voice called out, "Vetra! The fuck do you think you're doing?" An angry looking human male stood before her clipboard in hand.

"I'm going on a space adventure Doug, what does it look like I'm doing?"

"Those supplies...you didn't clear them with Addison. Take 'em off," replied Doug.

Vetra walked over to where Doug stood and put his arm around him and said, "Doug, you've still got a kid in cryo right?"

"Yeah my son, Andy. He's non-essential personnel but I miss him."

"You sign off on that little clipboard and go tell Addison that we left before you got here and I'll pull some strings to get Andy thawed out with the next batch," Vetra said.

Doug sighed and said, "Alright. Get out of here Vetra," and the turned on his heels and headed back to the tram and away from the docks.

The Terrarium turned back to Clarissa and with a mandible twitching smile said, "Come on, I'll give you the grand tour."

* * *

Clarissa stood on the flight deck of the Tempest looking out the window at the tiny antlike workers scurrying about below. She was suddenly struck by the gravity of the responsibilities that had been placed upon her. It should have been Zack up here, not her. Her father had been grooming Zack for a military career since they were kids.

Zack was confident and well liked by everyone. Clarissa had always been awkward and filled with self-doubt. Being "that weird biotic girl," in middle school and high school back on Earth had not helped her already fragile self-esteem and yet now everyone in the Andromeda Initiative was counting on her to save the day.

"Clarissa, would you like to say anything before we set off?" Cora asked bringing Clarissa back to reality.

Clarissa nodded. "This ship shouldn't be mine. It was designed for a Pathfinder. It was designed for my father. Dad Ryder should have been up here giving this speech while I stood somewhere in the back over there and tried to work up the courage to talk to the person standing next to me, but things didn't work out that way. Dad's dead and there's no one standing next to me and even if there were it'd probably be against the rules to flirt awkwardly with them now that I'm in charge of all this."

Gill from engineering laughed and yelled out, "You can flirt with me all you like. I promise I won't report ya." He seemed kind of douchey to Clarissa.

There was some laughter but Clarissa ignored it and continued her speech, "All of us here and everyone down there came to Andromeda for one thing: a new beginning. Things haven't worked out the way any of us planned, but I think if we work together we can still give people the hope they're so desperate for. Uh...Mister...shit I forgot your name dude. Sorry. Pilot take us up. We've got some pathfinding to do!"

The Salarian pilot did not seem overly perturbed by her gaffe and eased the shuttle out of the dock. A moment later the ship was floating above Citadel Jr.

Clarissa took one last look at the station below and thought of all the men and women on board counting on her. She looked at the pilot and said, "Set a course for Eos!"


	3. S04E03 - Everything Goes Wrong (Eos)

Cora kicked a space crate and shouted, "Goddammit!" as Clarissa entered the Tempest's botany lair.

"Is everything alright?" Clarissa asked somewhat taken aback by both the fact that her spaceship had a botany lair and that the usually cool, calm, and collected Cora was losing her shit like a goddamn psycho.

Cora shook her head, "No, I'm sorry. I...it's just that I've trained so long to be a Pathfinder. I've gone through all the training I've got all the coursework completed and your father just randomly picked you. No offense but you're not really Pathfinder material."

Cora did have a point. She was infinitely more qualified and prepared to be Pathfinder than she was. Clarissa shrugged slightly and said, "Look Cora, I didn't ask for this...any of it. If there was some way to undo it and make you the Pathfinder I would do it in an instant. It would probably make that Addison lady happier if it were you instead of me."

"I know. I'm sorry, I'm not being fair to you," Cora said. She took a deep breath and continued, "I'll do my best to serve you like I did your father."

Clarissa raised her eyebrows and said, "And maybe in a different way than you did for my father..."

Cora cringed and sighed, "Oh Goddess, why does this always happen to me? Back when I was an Asari Commando one of my squadmates said something similar. Clarissa, I'll tell you the same thing I told her. I'm not interested in women the same way you are, but I will serve beside you as a sister and will happily give my own life so that you might live."

Clarissa felt her face reddening. "Wow, this is really awkward. Like more awkward than the first time I told a girl I liked her awkward. I'm going to go hide in my room until we get to Eos."

She turned and walked out of the botany lair but before she could retreat to her room and listen to space emo she nearly bumped into Liam who asked, "Hey you up for that beer we talked about when we almost died via falling out of an exploding space shuttle yeah?"

Clarissa nodded. "Yeah I could use a drink." She did wonder where Liam had been able to find beer. Supplies had been pretty meager on Citadel Jr., but she supposed that where there was a will there was a way.

"Smashing! I've got a sweet setup down in the cargo hold," Liam replied.

* * *

Clarissa leaned back on the ratty couch that had been dragged into a corner of the hangar along with a vid display and sipped her beer.

"So how'd you end up a cop?" she asked.

"Well Mum and Dad were both lawyers yeah? I didn't really have the brains for the law part of law and order so I figure I'd be a cop," Liam replied.

"So you were a disappointment too huh?"

Liam chuckled, "Nah, Mum and Dad were pretty okay with it. But you? I can't really see you being considered a disappointment. I mean your old man did make you Pathfinder after all right?"

"Only because my brother wasn't there," Clarissa replied, "My dad liked Zack. He tolerated me at best. I was too short. Too biotic. Too gay. It got worse after my mom died. I think I reminded him too much of Mom."

Liam nodded and chugged from his frozen mug of mystery brew and said, "That must have been tough. Makes me glad I'm an only child. Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah sure Liam."

"A second ago when you said you were too gay you meant like gay gay not happy gay right?"

Clarissa nodded and sipped her brew. She hoped Liam wasn't going to be weird about it.

"I kind of figured as much," Liam said with a sigh, "I gotta say it's kind of a bummer to sleep for 600 years and travel a bajillion light years only to end up on a ship with a bunch of lesbians...uh, no offense."

"None taken, but you're kind of wrong. It's not all lesbians here. Cora's totally straight for one."

Liam was taken aback, "What?! Cora, with that hair? The former Asari Commando? You're shitting me yeah?"

"I know right? She even had me fooled."

S.A.M. suddenly buzzed in Clarissa's ear, "Ryder, we are approaching Eos now. You and Liam may wish to finish your beverages and prepare for landing."

Clarissa chugged the rest of her brew and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "We're coming up on Eos now Liam, I gotta go get suited up. You should do the same."

"I guess the fun's over then yeah?" Liam said as he drained the beer remaining in his cup, "We should do this again sometime. Maybe invite Cora yeah?"

**Commercial Break**

Clarissa stepped off the Tempest onto the surface of Eos. All about her were prefabricated structures and still unpacked space crates. The settlement here hand been abandoned in a hurry, but the environmental barrier was still operational. Scanners detected high levels of radiation in the atmosphere outside the barrier but here in the settlement things were reasonably safe.

Ultimately that was going to be her task: determining the cause of the radiation and deciding whether or not it was something that could be reversed. Clarissa sighed. She should have stayed in the Milky Way working on Ancient Alien archeological sites. She could have gone back to school, gotten her doctorate, become a researcher or maybe a professor, met a nice girl, gotten married, had a couple of kids, and then died of old age and never have had to deal with radioactive bullshit on some desolate planet a bajillion miles from home.

Clarissa sighed to herself. She had to stop thinking that way. This wasn't a bajillion miles from home. Not anymore. Now this red and brown ball of dust and craggy rocks was home. Or rather could be if she succeeded in a seemingly impossible task.

"So where do we start?" the Terrarium, Vetra, asked, "It looks like they powered down most of the equipment here."

"You think if we got the air purifier turned on it would solve the problem with the radiation?" Clarissa asked.

"I can't imagine it would hurt," the Terrarium replied, "I've worked on these modules before, one of the buildings near the air purification station should have a control terminal. We should be able to reset the system from there."

"Okay. Let's find that terminal then," Clarissa said and together she, Vetra and Liam set off for the cluster of boxy, prefabricated buildings closest to the air purification station.

They crossed the dusty expanse between the landing site and the structures comprising the abandoned settlement. Already Clarissa could feel the impossible burden that had been placed upon her. This entire planet was radioactive bulkshit. Even if she got the air purifiers turned on that would only do so much. The radiation would take centuries to dissipate.

They checked several abandoned buildings before finally discovering the one that housed the terminal for the air purifier. Unfortunately the power to the terminal had been cut as well.

"Shit," Clarissa said as she stared at the dead terminal, "We're going to need to find a generator. S.A.M., whatcha got?"

The A.I. implant living in her brain replied, "A moment Clarissa. Yes, I've located a generator nearby. It is in low power mode, generating just enough power to run essential systems. It does not appear to be damaged though and if you were to increase the generator's power output you should be able to use the terminal."

"Point the way S.A.M." Clarissa commanded and a moment later she was walking toward another boxlike structure in the camp. We she and her companions arrived there, however, they found the door locked.

"That's weird," Vetra said as she examined the door, "This one's locked from the inside. Maybe someone's still inside."

"Only one way to find out," replied Clarissa. The intercom beside the door had been pulled out so that just the speaker hung from its socket so Clarissa balled up a tiny fist and pounded on the structure's door and called out, "Hello? Is there anyone in there."

A nearby security camera pivoted and the intercom near the door squawked out a staticky response, "Who are you? You don't look like scavengers."

"My name's Clarissa Ryder. I'm a Pathfinder with the Initiative. I need to get in there to turn on the generator."

The speaker crackled. "Sorry Boss, nothing doing. You see, those douchelords, the Kett, are pretty gung-ho about killing all humans and if we turn this thing back on their patrols will pick up the signal and swoop down here and wreck out shit."

"How about this, you turn on the generator and keep this door shut. We'll take care of the Kett," Clarissa offered, "If we don't come back in 15 minutes you can shut your generator down again."

The speaker fell silent. Clarissa hoped it was because whoever was inside was mulling it over or discussing the suggestion with any compatriots hiding inside with them rather than merely shutting off the intercom because they'd gotten fed up with her. Her fears were laid to rest a moment later when the speaker clicked back on and the voice on the other end said, "Alright, we'll turn on the generator for you, but if you're not back soon we're gonna shut it down."

"Fair enough," Clarissa said to the man on the intercom and then turning to Vetra and Liam said, "Get your guns ready."

Clarissa readied her space knife as she heard the generator hum back to life and lights around the compound began to flicker back on. The scavengers in the control room hadn't been lying for almost as soon as the generator had been turned on a Kett shuttle swooped down toward the camp.

"Here they come!" Clarissa shouted as she began to surround herself with space magic.

A Kett leapt down from the shuttle, but before he could touch the ground Clarissa released her space magic and shot across the compound and slammed into the Kett. The alien staggered and a quick thrust of the space knife finished the job.

More jumped out of the craft. Clarissa released a blast of flame from her Power Glove and then quickly rocketed away before she became overwhelmed by the Kett.

"BOOYAH! BOOYAH!" her shotgun screamed as Kett domes got blasted asunder. It wasn't long before the only Kett in the area were corpsed up.

"And that's the end of that chapter," Clarissa said as she shouldered her shotgun and dusted off her hands, "C'mon let's go get that guy to turn on the generators full blast so we can get the air purifier running."

Back across the dusty camp they walk to the locked door and again Clarissa knocked. "Uh...we killed all the Kett dude. Can you let us in so we can get the generator working and turn the air purifier back on?"

There was feedback from the intercom and a moment later the voice replied, "Yeah we saw it on the security cam. Hold on."

A moment later the door slid open and they were met by a scruffy looking human male in a grungy Initiative jumpsuit. "The generator controls are over there," he said motioning to a nearby terminal. I saw what you did to those Kett, but think I'll get out of here all the same. There's a space car in the garage over by the purifier you might want to check out. I would have taken it myself but it's keyed for Pathfinder use only. Alright I'm out. Smell ya later Pathfinder."

The grungy scavenger then wander off leaving Clarissa and her allies alone in the building. Clarissa walked over to the generator and turned it on.

"Come on, let's get that air purifier turned back on," she said as she threw the switch to the MAX POWER!!! setting.

**Commercial Break**

"Lousy Initiative tech. Can't even purify the air," Clarissa thought to herself as the space car the scavenger had told her about rumbled across the irradiated landscape. The air purifier back at the camp had been a bust.

S.A.M. buzzed in her brain, "I've done some calculations and the source of the radiation seems to be that spire in the distance. Perhaps if we can find a way to deactivate it the air will return to normal."

"Liam, head for that tower over there," Clarissa said as Liam tried not to wreck the space car in some crevasse, "S.A.M. thinks it might have something to do with the radiation."

Liam said nothing, but turned the space car toward the strange tower looming on the horizon like a giant, radioactive middle finger. Clarissa hoped that there would be something there that would help with this ridiculous radiation.

As they rumbled closer to the structure S.A.M. again spoke directly into her brain, "Clarissa, someone has erected an energy field around the tower similar to the one at the Initiative camp. The environment within the field should be reasonably safe." It might have been her first bit of good news since coming out of cryo. They'd at least be able to scout the area without their life support systems failing.

A moment later Liam brought the space car to rest in the shadow of the strange monolithic spire and the three space explores exited the vehicle.

"Keep your eyes open," Clarissa said. She had no idea what to tell them to keep their eyes open for so she left it at that.

"Oi what's all this yeah?" Liam said. He stood before a series of scanners that while not Initiative issue were clearly making use of Initiative tech.

"Ryder, there's a shuttle over here," Vetra said over the intercom, "Looks like one of ours. Kind of beat up though."

"I guess the billion credit question is whether all this stuff belongs to one of our people or if the Kett jacked it and are using it," Clarissa replied.

She looked up at the great spire and then it dawned on her: it was nearly identical to the tower her father had shut down back on Habitat Seven. Perhaps there was a way to shut this one down as well.

"Liam, this tower looks like the one back on Habitat Seven," she said into her intercom, "Try and find a control panel or something so we can shut it off."

"You sure about that Ryder?" Liam replied, "The last time didn't work out so great yeah?"

He was right. The last time she and her father had fallen off a tower down into a pit of spiky rocks n' shit. She'd very nearly died, and was only standing there on Eos because her father sacrificed his own life for hers. They'd need to be more careful if they were going to keep messing around with weird alien technology towers.

Clarissa kept her eyes peeled until she came to a large structure that appeared to be a control panel. S.A.M.'s bored voice droned in her head, "Clarissa, this appears to be a control panel similar to the one your father used back on Habitat Seven. I require more runes to be scanned before I can translate the command codes sufficiently. Perhaps you can find some samples nearby."

She sighed and told Vetra and Liam to stop looking for a control panel and start looking for runes and she set off to find said runes as well. It didn't take her too long to locate some weird squiggly lines that S.A.M. claimed were some sort of alien language. She scanned them and then headed back to the control panel to try and activate it. She pressed a single button when she was suddenly tackled and knocked to the ground. Clarissa looked up to see an Asari, clad in a leather jacket seated on her chest. If she hadn't just tackled her, Clarissa would have thought her to be kind of cute.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" the Asari said, "If you go pressing those buttons the Remnant will pop up and start shooting everything. It'll be a mess and you don't want that do you? I mean I don't want that. You're kind of cute and all. Not him. I don't really care if he gets Remnanted, but I'd be like 14% bummed if you got zapped."

"Uh, okay..." Clarissa said 

"How'd you even know what this thing was? None of the colonists could even get the control panel opened," the Asari asked, still seated on Clarissa.

"Um...who are you?"

"Peebee. Like Phoebe but a Pee instead of a Fee. I'd like to think of myself an expert of the Remnant," the Asari said, "but enough about me, how'd you know how this thing worked?"

"I saw one on Habitat Seven. My dad used it to turn of the lightning that was running wild on that planet," Clarissa said, "I thought maybe we could use this one to turn off the radiation or something...make it habitable for people."

"Oh wow! Oh wow! Atmospheric controls...why didn't I think of that?" Peebee asked and stood up. She offered Clarissa a hand and pulled her to her feet, "Sorry about knocking you down there. Um..."

"Clarissa Ryder. I'm a Pathfinder."

"Oh shit...I knocked down a Pathfinder? Shit...well I'm sorry Clarissa Ryder. In my defense I did it so you wouldn't get zapped by Remnants."

"Uh...it's okay I guess. Can I ask you a question?" Clarissa asked.

"I think you just did, but go ahead, ask another."

"What exactly are Remnants?"

Peebee replied, "You haven't heard of the Remnant and they made you Pathfinder? They're like these weird tiny robots that fly around. There are a couple different versions of them. Some shoot lasers all over the goddamn place. Some make more tiny robots. Some just look at you all creepy like a sex pervert. Maybe there are more, but those are the types I've seen thus far. They seem to hang around these towers. I think maybe whoever built the towers built the Remnants too."

"Can they be destroyed?" Clarissa asked, "I need to try to turn this tower off but I don't want to summon some invincible robots here in the process."

"I dunno, how well can you three shoot?" Peebee asked, "If you're a decent shot they blow up pretty good, but if you don't know how to use that gun you got strapped to your back I guess they could cause some trouble."

Clarissa nodded and said, "Okay. Liam, Vetra get your guns ready, I'm going to try to turn this thing off. Peebee, you're not part of my crew so you can either go hide or help us shoot things if you want. The choice is yours."

"And miss a chance to see what happens when someone activates this thing?" Peebee said as she unholstered a pistol, "I'm staying here."

"Okay, just be careful," Clarissa said as she turned back to the control panel. The runes before her suddenly made sense and she began inputting activation codes. S.A.M. had obviously done something to her brain that allowed her to understand the alien writing. After a moment the control panel lit up.

"Ryder, here they come!" Liam shouted.

Clarissa turned and saw a swarm of tiny, hovering robots coming towards their position. She whipped out her shotgun and fired. "BOOYAH! BOOYAH!" A tiny robot exploded into a heap of robochunks, but more flew towards her. Clarissa summoned a heap of space magic and charged forward, slamming into the tiny robots. She then jumped up and slammed her fist into the ground, sending an explosion of space magic up into the air, causing the tiny robots to burst asunder. Another robot floated up to her, but Clarissa turned on her flamethrower and burnt it to a crisp. It wasn't long until all the tiny robots were completely and utterly destroyed.

Peebee applauded Clarissa's random acts of violence and asked, "So are you going to finish turning this tower thing on or what? I really, really, really, really want to see what happens."

Clarissa nodded and strolled over to the control panel and punched some more data into the computer. The entire thing lit up and then the spire before them began to rearrange itself like a Transformer. Chunks of technology shifted about and a beam of beam shot out of the top of the spire and streaked across the horizon. Peebee's jaw dropped.

"Peebee, do you know what's out there?" Clarissa asked, "Where is this beam of beam going?"

The Asari nodded and said, "There are a couple more spires out there. Maybe we need to activate them all before anything happens."

"Goddammit," Clarissa said with a sigh.


End file.
